An interesting package arrived the other day. Inside was a climbing sock, which had been sent by Sir Edmund Hillary as his contribution to the Made From New Zealand project. “This might be useful to you” said the message. “Maybe you could use it for your t-shirt.”

Too right we could. We contacted some people in the textiles industry, and asked them how we could get a little piece of Sir Ed in every Made From New Zealand teeshirt. “It’s technically impossible” said one. “There’s no woolspinners left in New Zealand” said another. Then we called Robert Larsen, technical guru at New Zealand spinning experts Woolyarns. “Sure, no problem” said Robert. “We’d be glad to help. We’ll spin it into a merino yarn, and you can stitch a piece into every shirt.”

In the space of an hour, we had moved from the ‘impossible’ to the ‘no problem’, we had achieved what they said couldn’t be done. Kind of like Sir Ed himself, although more in a fashion detailing sense than in a climbing Mount Everest sense. Regardless, thanks to Sir Ed, the Made From New Zealand teeshirt is a teeshirt like no other.